Sarita Tanwar

It’s been the biggest disaster of his career.

But Rajiv Rai has already left the past far behind.

The hotshot director of blockbusters like Tridev, Mohra and Gupt hasn’t let the failure of his latest, Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat dampen his spirits.

Rajiv has already geared up for his next film, Asambhav, which sees him return to his roots.

Asambhav will be an action-thriller extravaganza with a three-hero ensemble. "The only person finalised for the film is Arjun Rampal," reveals Rajiv.

Rajiv is adding the final touches to his script and he hopes casting will be completed by November 2001.

Shooting is expected to commence early next year.

Asambhav, is a title that Rajiv had registered years ago. In fact, he was to make this film soon after Mohra.

But at the time, he felt that a murder mystery like Gupt would be more apt, as a follow on.

Post-Gupt, a near-fatal attack forced the director to leave the country. Rajiv tried his luck in Hollywood. But when things failed to materialise, he was left with no other option but to return to Hindi cinema.

"When I made PIAM, I was following a trend. Everyone was making love stories. So I tried my hand at something new. And I failed," he says.

PIAM was conceived keeping in mind all the limitations he faced as a filmmaker. As things were still too dangerous in India, he wrote his script to provide him with the opportunity of completing the film overseas .

"Somewhere during the shooting, we realised something wasn’t right," admits Rajiv. "But we did try our best to make things better. Unfortunately, it didn’t work."

A likely candidate for the one of the other two leads of Asambhav is Anil Kapoor. Industry sources insist that Rajiv has already met with him, but the filmmaker refuses to disclose details.

All he says is, "I have to make a damn good film. Not for anything else. I think I owe this to myself."